The invention relates to a device for producing permanently set crumple pleat crease patterns in fabric webs using a heatable crumple tube at one end of which there is provided an oscillatingly driveable stuffing element with which the fabric web in rope form is batch-wise successively inserted into the crumple tube, compressed and finally forced out at the opposite end, and to a process for treating the fabric webs following the production of the crumple pleat creases.
Skirts and dresses made of pleated fabrics, i.e. fabrics having a permanently set crease pattern, are an established part of Ladies' fashion. Hitherto, the pleating produced in fabric webs by machine has predominantly taken the form of the so-called machine pleat, where a pleating machine having so-called pleating blades is used to produce parallel pleats of equal width extending across the fabric web and these pleats are permanently set by heating in a calendar having at least one heated roll. In individual fabric cuts, for example skirt cuts for wide Ladies' skirts expanding into a bell shape, pleat patterns were also produced in the form of the sunray pleat and--recently--also in the form of the so-called artistic pleat by placing the cuts by hand between stiff cardboard pleating moulds prefolded in accordance with the pleat pattern and subsequently clamped together, which are then permanently set in so-called steaming cabinets or autoclaves by the action of superheated steam and subsequent drying.
In addition to the production of regular pleats in fabric webs, it is also known to continuously produce so-called crinkle pleats in fabric webs (DE-A-3,145,404) by forming the originally smooth fabric web into a tube-shaped rope and then pulling the rope, with reduction in diameter, through an elongated tubular die of relatively small diameter in which superheated steam is simultaneously applied to the fabric web rope. After passing through the die the fabric web rope is opened out, pulled apart and dried, setting the crinkle pleat pattern produced in the die. Crinkle pleat patterns produced in this way have irregularly wide and long pleats which, however, are predominantly oriented in the longitudinal direction of the fabric web. Finally, there are also already in existence devices for producing crumple pleat patterns in fabric webs (U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,519; DE-A-2,932,495) where the fabric web--instead of being pulled through a crinkling die--is stuffed into a crumple tube and compressed, and the resulting creases are set by the action of superheated steam and subsequent drying. The crumple pleat pattern produced in this way differs from the aforementioned crinkle pleat pattern in that the pleats produced do not have any predominant direction of orientation but are completely irregular. In the known devices, the element stuffing the fabric web rope into the crumple tube is either an oscillatingly driven ring which is provided with wire brushes having wire bristles inclined away from the stuffing direction and which cooperates with corresponding wire brushes at the entry side end of the crumple tube (U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,519) or is a likewise oscillatingly traversing stuffer ring where the escape of the fabric web out of the crumple tube during the return stroke of the stuffer ring is prevented by clamping jaws then contacting the fabric web rope (DE-A-2,932,495). However, the feeding of the fabric web rope into the crumple tube by means of wire brushes has to be ruled out in the case of thin and sensitive, fine-thread fabrics which can be perforated by the wire bristles and possible even damaged. On the other hand, the need to synchronize the drive of the clamping jaws with the stroke of the stuffer ring represents a complication of the device. In both cases, the compacting of the fabric web rope in the crumple tube and thus also the sharpness of the resulting crumple creases depends on the friction between the inner surface of the crumple pipe and the fabric web plug. It is thus the case that the sharpness of the pleat pattern varies with variation in the friction between the fabric web plug and the crumple tube as a consequence of different fabric web materials without any influencing being possible.
Against that, the invention has for its object to provide a high-performance device for producing permanently set crumple pleat patterns in fabric webs, which makes it possible to process a very wide range of fabrics without any danger of damage through the stuffing process or--in particular in the case of thicker fabrics--indistinct patterns.